These fantasy football sleepers for Week 12 are players to keep an eye on and maybe even add to your list of waiver wire pickups and free agent adds this week. Follow Matthew J. Jillson on Twitter at @eatcookcryptos. 

Countless dreams were violently put to an end this past weekend. Eleven weeks of crossing fingers, hoping for the best and prayer, gone. A Jackson Pollack-like explosion of body parts and excrement on the wall of your league message board signaling an end to a sad season. This is the human wreckage of those who chose to ignore bye weeks, poor matchups, declining players and executing a really bad trade. Self playoff deportation is gruesome to see. I’m glad this isn’t what happened to us, my friend.

Make no mistake, there are dead leaves left to go, teams still massively on the bubble. We discussed this before: who do we want in the playoffs to be a tasty snack at a later date and who do we want to send packing? Now, how can we make that happen on the waiver wire? Are we in a position to lose a week (while starting a full playing roster) before the playoffs start to affect playoff standings and who gets to dance in the post season? Yes, Dark Lord, these are the questions you need to ask yourself as you prepare to conquer this fantasy Middle Earth.

[Week 12 Fantasy Football Analysis: See waiver wire pickups, players to drop, sleepers, streaming kickers, streaming defenses and more.]

I have preached on this season-long soapbox about stashing running backs and other hard to find positions in a pinch in case The Curse strikes. The time is upon us to shift gears and start stashing key role player positions such as D/STs to tide you over through the weeks ahead and playoffs. One critical point to remember as you have become Machine and snuffed out months of work for people — they’re going to want revenge. As you have all season, you can stay one step ahead of these haters by covering your tail pipe and understanding what last desperate moves they might have to play to your detriment.

We are playing for control at this point. We want to dictate what future the Fantasy Gods deem is ours. Take a look at your needs while you can, the end of season push to load benches is officially underway. Do not leave roster holes to chance and push the competition the way you want them to go. Never forget as we enter the playoffs, only victory is life this late in the season.

Week 12 Sleepers

Cameron Brate (TE, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 21% owned)

Much like an episode of Daytime TV, the revolving quarterback door has flipped again in Tampa Bay in favor of Jameis Winston. This directly benefits Cameron Brate, as the two have undoubtedly shown a connection in the past. Mix in a season-ending ankle injury for O.J. Howard with a dash of a soft schedule and voila, you got a playoff berth clincher at a thin position. This could turn out to be quite a handsome investment.

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Josh Adams (RB, Philadelphia Eagles, 32% owned)

Sometimes you make mistakes doing this kind of work. I had Yeti Steve (yeah, the same guy who traded Tyreek for Le’Veon at the trade deadline) being aggressive last week in his insistence to watch Josh Adams. I didn’t listen and now here we are. Do I think you need to burn an early waiver wire priority to go after Josh Adams? No, not unless you’re desperate at the position. Does he have the potential to exceed expectations and deliver at just at the right time? Yes. I still wouldn’t start him over season-long studs that have brought me this far, though, but he is a worth bench stash.

Matt Bryant (K, Atlanta Falcons, 46% owned)

Back with a vengeance, Matt Bryant returned from a hamstring injury this past week and imposed his will in Dallas. Atlanta has an interesting schedule for the kicker position and you could very well get a few more 10+ point performances out of Bryant. For those who have been streaming their kicker, this could be home through the end of the season.

Gus Edwards (RB, Baltimore Ravens, 7% owned)

The changing of the guard can do strange things to teams. Lamar Jackson had what seemed a promising start last Sunday and showed some of raw power that has been brewing on the bench. In the process, he changed the team dynamic and I expect to see more. Gus Edwards’ use over the season had been 15 total attempts yielding 64 yards. Last Sunday: 17 attempts for 115 yards and a touchdown. Much like Adams, there’s still a lot to prove here and he’s in a crowded backfield, but the schedule really favors Baltimore down the stretch and if Gus takes over, it’ll be a possible season-winning move on your part.

Jameis Winston (QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 9% owned)

Here we go, back at it. Jameis Winston is leading the Bucs offense. I think with Winston’s contract guarantees, he will be on a short leash – he could get mid-game pulled again at some point if he is getting beat up and that game could be against Baltimore – but the payout is well worth the risk leading up to that, especially if you have been dart throwing with the likes of Dak Prescott or Marcus Mariota. What we know for certain is anyone with the keys to Tampa’s offense has a real chance to put up serious, dream-crushing points. It comes down to if you fancy yourself a gambler or not.

Crypto Corner (NOT Financial advice)

1. The Crypto market is on fire in a bad way, friends. Bitcoin ($BTC) has busted the $6k support level all the way down to $4.3k range. While there are a lot of contributing factors here, my advice in this situation is to be patient. If you have already taken heavy losses, why capitulate at this point since they are truly paper loses only? We have talked about Wall St. wanting Bitcoin prices to plunge so that when they eventually get the green light on market entry they can make a massive earning splash. If you are a greedy banker type do you want to inject a massive investment fund into Bitcoin at $1.5k-$3.5k range or the previous price of $6.5? This price correction fits that narrative if you like a good story. I happen to think it turns out to be non-fiction. Hodl tight, crypto friends.
2. Bakkt, a digital trading platform founded by NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange that had plans to launch Bitcoin ($BTC) futures trading in just a few weeks announced they would be pushing their planned start of these futures contracts to January 24^th Yet another example that fits a narrative that Wall St. wants cheap Bitcoin. This is fairly significant news for the near term price of Bitcoin I believe as the start of trading futures contracts was widely expected to catapult the price.
3. The TRON BlockChain Explorer or TronNet (tronscan.org) recently launched a decentralized exchange (DEX) on its platform trading solely in TronNet issued tokens paired to $TRX. While brand new and needing some UI improvements it has created an interesting playground where those who have been collecting $TRX from Super Representative voting have been riding incredible waves of volatility. If you are familiar with TRON or have tokens sitting idle at the very least I recommend you put them to use on the TronNet in the SR voting process so you can earn essentially free $TRX.